1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a storage apparatus and a calibrating method therefor, arranged to perform information recording on and regeneration from a medium, and more particularly, to a storage apparatus and a calibrating method therefor, capable of suitably processing a request for calibration which may be made during the recording and regeneration of sequential data.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Known optical storage apparatuses perform information recording and regeneration by use of optical disk storage media such as magneto-optical disks (MD, MO), phase-change type optical disks (PD), hard disks and compact disks (CD, CD-R, CD-RW). Such optical storage apparatuses serve as computer external storage devices for recording the ordinary computer data, computer-executable programs, etc. Recently, however, computers tend to handle sequential data such as acoustic data and animation data in the form of time-sequentially continuous data streams. The optical storage apparatuses are effective ones sufficient to repeatedly record and regenerate such mass sequential data that attach importance to the lasting transfer speed. The conventional optical storage apparatuses judge calibration operative conditions on the basis of various variation factors such as time-sequential variances or temperature variances and further of statistical information such as past seek error count. When the operative conditions are satisfied, the optical storage apparatuses temporarily suspend the data processing to execute the calibration for regulating and optimizing the apparatus operation parameters. In cases where upon the data regeneration or recording there have occurred errors attributable to dusts or scratches on the medium or to defects upon the medium formation and servo abnormality or other errors due to external vibrations, normal ending is achieved by retry after the execution of the error recovery.
Recent application of the optical storage apparatuses to the multimedia adaptable data processing systems necessitates recording/regeneration of successive data streams such as acoustic data or animation data. In case of recording and regenerating acoustic data or animation data, those data are typically sequential data, so that sequential processing is performed for recording and regenerating them on the optical disk medium in a sequential manner. The sequential data such as the acoustic data or animation data need by nature sequential recording and regeneration. Hence, if a long wait occurs in the midcourse of recording and regeneration, then it becomes hard to process the subsequent data one after another, resulting in an error. In this manner, it would be preferred not to suspend the processing for the recording and regeneration of the acoustic data or the animation data. On the other hand, the current optical storage apparatuses execute the servo calibration for the purpose of adjusting various parameters which may vary with the temperature variances or with the elapsed time. Also in cases where the set count is exceeded from the seek error statistical information, the servo calibration is carried out for adjusting the apparatus variances or apparatus-medium eccentricity information. Such servo calibration processing takes a time of the order of three to four seconds. In the event of occurrence of an error upon the recording/regeneration, error recovery processing is instantly activated to bring a normal ending through the retry after the error recovery operations. Correspondingly to the degree of the errors, this recovery processing includes serious error recovery processing, intermediate error recovery processing and light error recovery processing, and if normally ended, the calibration processing is carried out. Thus, six to seven seconds are needed since the calibration processing is added to the error recovery processing of the error. For this reason, if the calibration is started during the recording or regeneration of the acoustic data or animation data, then the halt time in recording/regeneration may occur that could not be accommodated by the data transfer buffer, which may possibly results in deficiencies such as a screen data halt in regeneration.
According to the present invention there is provided a storage apparatus and a calibrating method therefor, ensuring appropriate execution of calibrations and error recoveries without suspending a the recording/regeneration of sequential data.
The storage apparatus of the present invention comprises a calibration processing unit for executing a calibration when predetermined operative conditions are satisfied; and a calibration invalidation unit for temporarily invalidating execution of the calibration if the calibration operative conditions are satisfied during processing of sequential data, the calibration invalidation unit permitting the execution of the calibration after termination of the sequential data processing. Thus, in case of recording or regenerating sequential data such as acoustic data or animation data having the highest priority on time-sequentially continuous actions, in spite of satisfaction of calibration operative conditions the execution of the calibration is temporarily suspended till the termination of the regeneration or recording of the sequential data, with the result that the sequential data recording or regeneration will be prevented from being suspended.
The calibration invalidation unit includes a sequential data judgment unit for judging whether sequential data are being processed, the sequential data judgment unit making a judgment that the sequential data are being processed if recording or regeneration continues for a predetermined period of time and if a regeneration or recording track on a medium is continued. The sequential data judgment unit makes a judgment that the sequential data are being processed if a sequential data processing mode is set. The calibration processing unit makes a judgment that the calibration operative conditions have been satisfied in cases where the apparatus temperature variance on a predetermined time basis exceeds a predetermined value, where the elapsed time after loading of a medium exceeds a predetermined time, or where the seek error count exceeds a predetermined value.
The storage apparatus of the present invention further comprises an error recovery processing unit which, upon the occurrence of an error, makes a recovery to cancel the error and thereafter makes a retry, the error recovery processing unit executing calibration processing when the error recovery is normally terminated. Upon the execution of the calibration processing by the error recovery processing unit, the calibration invalidation unit temporarily invalidates the execution of the calibration if processing of sequential data is in process, and permits the execution of the calibration after the termination of the sequential data processing. The error recovery processing unit classifies errors which have occurred, into a serious error, an intermediate error and a light error. When a serious error occurs, the error recovery processing unit executes serious error recovery processing. When a light error occurs or when the serious error recovery processing is normally terminated, the error recovery processing unit executes light error recovery processing. When the light error recovery processing is normally terminated, the error recovery processing unit executes calibration processing if predetermined calibration operative conditions are satisfied. When the intermediate error recovery processing is normally terminated, the error recovery processing unit compulsorily executes the calibration processing without judging the calibration operative conditions. In this case, the calibration invalidation unit temporarily invalidates execution of the calibration if processing of sequential data is in process, and allows the execution of the calibration after termination of the sequential data processing. Thus, as to the recovery processing for the error which has occurred during the recording or regeneration, in case of the error which has occurred during the recording or regeneration of the sequential data, the execution of the calibration processing will temporarily be suspended till the termination of the sequential data recording or regeneration, thereby preventing the error recovery processing from taking too much time to consequently impede the recording or regeneration of the sequential data. The calibration invalidation unit creates and stores a status (temporary invalid flag) indicative of the temporary invalidation of the calibration, and, if the sequential data processing is terminated with the absence of the other processings, executes the calibration processing which has temporarily been invalidated.
The present invention provides a calibrating method for the storage apparatus, the method comprising the steps of a calibration processing step for executing a calibration when predetermined operative conditions are satisfied; and a calibration invalidation step for temporarily invalidating execution of the calibration if the calibration operative conditions are satisfied during processing of sequential data, the calibration invalidation step including permitting the execution of the calibration after termination of the sequential data processing. The details of this calibrating method are substantially the same as the case of the storage apparatus.